Always Within
by Lazlo Pizazzlo
Summary: Shadow's hatred of his alien blood unleashes new fears, sparks unwanted memories, and makes him question everything he believed in.


_Somethin weird, short, and gory, hence the M rating. Interpret as you wish.  
-Laz_

* * *

When Shadow finally opened his eyes, there was nothing but the darkest of blacks surrounding him. His heart raced, thumping loudly in his ears. Darkness—darkness everywhere, and it constricted his throat. Breathing was difficult; it was unbearably warm.

Suddenly his ears twitched; a voice. Within a split second of it speaking, the air cooled. His heart resumed its normal beat. He could breathe easily yet again.

"Shadow..." the voice was deep, dripping with something dangerous. The hedgehog in question stiffened, turning to the source. Alas, nothing but darkness; he grew wary, but stood his ground.

"Who are you and how do you know my name?" Shadow demanded. As his hands balled into fists, the world faded into red. His vision grew hazy, as if he were in a fog.

"Do you want to live a normal life, Shadow?"

Normal? What was normal? Shadow's mind failed to comprehend the meaning, and he fell back on instinct. Normal was good, he remembered people saying on the ARK. Monsters and demons were not normal. People were normal. He...he was a good person, Shadow told himself. He saved a planet; he was good—he wanted to be normal. Yes, he wanted a normal life. He nodded.

A tall, ebony hedgehog slinked out from the shadows, wearing a cloak of sorts. Shadow couldn't identify the person directly, but it cast familiarity, if not a dreadful haunting feeling. His stomach turned; he blinked, and the taller hedgehog was right before him. Their eyes met for the first time as a sharp pain took hold of Shadow's abdomen. He gasped aloud and dropped his head. A crooked knife was sheathed in his very flesh.

"Let's begin, shall we?"

Shadow's body went limp as he sank to his knees, the blade leaving his body with a trail of blood. It leaked out of his stomach, dripping to the floor in a small puddle. He couldn't smell it; his senses were fleeing him and numbness began to overtake his every fiber. That was it, his head repeated. That was it; he was going to die right there. If this hedgehog didn't finish him off, the blood loss would.

Through his foggy vision, he saw the black and crimson male lean down to his eye level, and there the bloody knife was, coated in his dark fluids.

"Did you know, Shadow, that this is your poison?" he teased, tasting the knife. "It's the one thing that keeps you from being normal...and I can help you with it."

With a mere tap to his head, Shadow fell back to the ground, wincing yet restraining any cry of pain. He heard the hedgehog muse to himself about where to start, and he began to feel his legs being torn through with the blade. His means of escape were rendered useless. He could do nothing now but lay and wait until his death.

Shadow's ears twitched, and he swore he heard a sweet, feminine voice. He looked up, finding the cerulean eyes of his long-passed human friend. She was smiling, yet tears were running down her pale cheeks. He panicked. This young girl shouldn't see him like this—Maria loved him and cared for him! She was so innocent and pure...

"Maria," Shadow said, voice hoarse. The girl's smile vanished, her body fading.

"Shadow, why...?"

He called her name out, reaching up to her ghost and staring into the nothingness that replaced it. Shadow no longer understood; it was a trick, he reasoned. It had to be! As he continued to gaze in shock, his captor sat atop his bleeding stomach solemnly. His legs were no longer enjoyable to slice at.

"Do you see, now, dear Shadow?" the hedgehog asked, carving the knife into Shadow's cheek. "Do you see what you've done to her? To your beloved Gerald? To all those people?"

"I...killed them...?" Shadow muttered in disbelief.

"Yes," the other smirked widely, "yes, you did."

And the knife went into his left arm. It dug around gingerly, tearing through every muscle in the area, yet Shadow could not feel a thing. Astonishing, he thought to himself; he was still conscious while all of this happened. He felt nothing! All he could feel was his head throbbing with horrid memories of the death he saw fifty years ago. And it was all his fault.

"Out..." Shadow stammered. "...out..."

If only he were like Sonic, Shadow cursed in his mind. Sonic was so **normal**! He didn't have to deal with this foreign alien muck swimming in his veins, pulsing through his body every moment that he breathed. He was whole, and he was recognizable. A hedgehog. He was a normal hedgehog. Shadow was something else...a monster, or half of one. Was that why G.U.N. stormed the ARK? If Shadow were a simple, harmless hedgehog, would things have been different? Would Maria have lived?

Shadow could barely register that his right arm was the hedgehog's next target. He was so entranced in his own thoughts that he could barely see the reality before him. He felt his fur matting together with his blood pooling around him. It was gruesome, but he was being rid of. That was what the world needed. He rid the world of Black Doom, the one who gave life to the monster, and now the monster was being finished for good.

Damn, would he see Black Doom in hell? He hoped not. He closed his eyes and prayed to whatever god existed that he would never see him again. He wanted to go somewhere nice for a change...he tried living as a peaceful creature. It didn't work, but he tried. Was that enough to get to heaven, where Maria was? Perhaps God saw what was inside of you. Shadow was being drained of what was inside of him; did that make him a better person now?

Suddenly, something inside of him snapped. He returned to reality, and realized that he was yelling while the hedgehog was calmly hushing him.

"Get it out...get it out of me...! Make it stop...! Make it leave forever!"

Shadow quickly tried to seize the words in his throat, but they crawled out just the same. Tears stung his eyes—a sensation Shadow was not accustomed to in the least bit—and he clutched the sides of his head with his tattered arms, ignoring the heavy bleeding. He was not himself! Who was he?! He found out, hadn't he? Was he just Black Doom in a hedgehog shell? No, it couldn't be. He was the guardian and savior for Earth—Shadow the Hedgehog. He was no other!

His memories spoke. He could see Maria, her perfect golden locks flowing about, suddenly splattered with red; he could see Gerald deep in sorrow before being shot in his prison cell. He saw people, scientists with clothes stained with blood. Bullets on the floor...soldiers stepping over them nonchalantly, searching for him. Finally, he saw Black Doom's three menacing eyes watching everything. This was not a normal life. He was not a normal person. He wanted it to be, though! Oh, how he wanted to be normal, just for a day...! All of it was because of the blood in his veins, and it wouldn't leave...

He killed all of those people, not with his hands, but by merely existing**.**

"Shadow, what's wrong? Isn't this what you wanted?" the hedgehog teased the tears, the knife's tip dangerously close to Shadow's heart. The hybrid trembled, cracking under the poisonous thoughts swimming through his mind.

"It's...not leaving...it's not gone..." Shadow stammered, lost in his mind still.

A shrill, demonic laughter filled Shadow's ears in response. He opened his dampened eyes, furrowing his brow. A strong hand grabbed Shadow's chin and lifted it up to the hedgehog's level; he could see blood-red irises, as well as a hypnotizing third eye atop the hedgehog's forehead.

Shadow's eyes widened. Air fled from his lungs and his heart ceased.

Three eyes.

"Of course it's not gone! It's your blood—it's **our **blood! It will never leave you! Ever!"

The back of Shadow's skull hit the ground. Stunned, he lay limp in the pool of his own blood as the awful laughter continued, growing louder and louder until a final plunge of the knife impaled Shadow's heart.


End file.
